Postnatal depression ‘can be treated’

Health experts can be trained to identify women with postnatal depression and offer effective treatment, new research claims.

A report published on bmj.com today also suggests telephone peer support ? mother to mother ? could halve the risk of women developing the condition.

Currently around 13 per cent of women experience postnatal depression during the 12 months following the birth of their child.

The authors of today’s report warn, however, that the condition frequently goes undetected and untreated.

Their study of over 4,000 mothers from 101 practices in England analysed whether psychological interventions were effective in treating the symptoms of postnatal depression.

At both six months and 12 months after the birth of their children, the mothers who received care from the specially trained health visitors showed significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms than those who received health visitor usual care.

Mothers in the intervention group with depressive symptoms at six weeks were 40 per cent less likely to have depressive symptoms at six months than those who received health visitor usual care.

A second study published today also found mothers who received peer support had half the risk of developing postnatal depression at 12 weeks after birth.